Panaji govt slashes stamp duty charges on sale deeds

PANAJI: In a bid to benefit several home owners and cooperative housing societies, the state government notified the reduction in stamp duty charges on executing sale deed of residential flats and homes and ensured that people would have to pay only 0.6% stamp duty if they have already executed the sale agreement.

"This is in pursuance of the budget proposals. People were going in for agreements, but not registering their sale deed. Thus, though the property was theirs, they did not have the title," undersecretary for revenue Ashutosh Apte said.

Responding to a demand made by the real estate lobby, the state government reduced the stamp duty chargeable on conveyance of immovable property, Apte said. In a bid to revive the fortunes of the real estate sector in the state by reducing the overall cost of ownership of a home, Goa chamber of commerce and industry Gmet chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar before the budget to urge him to revise the stamp duty collected by the government for property transactions.

Following the notification and with the proposal coming into effect, the cost of housing is likely to come down marginally. For apartments or villas that cost a maximum of 50 lakh, the stamp duty payable would be 35 for every thousand rupees. Where the amount or value of the consideration for such conveyance as set forth therein exceeds 50 lakh, but does not exceed 75 lakh, for every 1,000 or part thereof, the stamp duty shall be 40, the notification said.

"If the value of property exceeds 75 lakh but does not exceed 1 crore, for every 1,000 the stamp duty will be 45 and if the value of the property exceeds 1 crore, for every 1,000 the government will charge a stamp duty of 50," Apte said in the notification.

The government also reduced the stamp duty chargeable on conveyance for immovable property that has been executed by or on behalf of a co-operative housing society.